Bagheera wrote:Berserk 1-3: I somehow get the feeling this is not the best place to start with this franchise.

Dude please just read the manga or watch the 97 anime, it's insane how much better those are.I'm begging you here I dont want this to be peoples first introduction to berserk, hell even the movies are a better introduction

All good things must come to an end, and, alas, one of those is Flying Witch, where I refrained from binging the double episode last weekend, and which turned out to be a wise move. Cute though the final -- anime original, I gather -- episode was, it was rather less subtle in its tone than the rest of the series, both in its treatment of things magical and in characterising Akane. Indeed, I would have been quite happy to have had the whale episode as the finale, and stuck to 11 episodes.

Meanwhile, Diamond is not Crash and Re0096 continue.

As for the new season, Amanchu is going to take over from Flying Witch in the viewing schedule, and I shall give Thunderbolt Fantasy a go, but that seems to be about the limit for the moment, at least until some dark horse emerges.

NONAME wrote:Serial Experiments Lain, and I'm still waiting to see what is so special about this one

Japan reacts to the internet in the late '90s. A series made with the intent that round-eyed gaijin devils would not comprehend it -- but it turns out that millennial angst and the crazy things folks did online were fairly universal.

I continue to be bewildered as to why this doesn't have a more generic title. IT'S NOT 2015 ANYMORE, FOLKS!!! IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON TO THE YEAR OF HELL AND GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!

Anyway, my picks for the season:

Amaaama to Inazuma: This is marvelously good. The premise is simple -- HS teacher takes to cooking at one of his student's restaurant so that his daughter has decent meals -- but there's enough awareness of the peculiarity of the situation as well as enough in the way of likable characters to make it work. Highly recommended.

Amanchu: Kinda meh so far. Protag is a space cadet, and the hook is scuba diving. Haven't seen much of the latter just yet, and I'm not sure as to how that will sustain a season. I'm giving it a pass for now, but I have no idea how long that will last.

Arslan S02: OMG this is great. If you haven't watched the first season, fix that. Then get with the program double quick.

Fukigen na Mononokean: This is surprisingly good. I mean, it's pretty straightforward, and the characters aren't terribly complex, but if you liked Mushishi this should work for you.

Handa-kun: Not sure about this one. Check back later.

Orange: OMG this is so fucking amazing you should watch it YOU SHOULD WATCH IT RIGHT NOW-- <Ahem> Sorry. This is a great show. The sheer expressiveness of the characters is amazing, and the plot isn't terrible. If you want decent HS SoL this is your go-to show for the season.

Servamp: I dunno . . . maybe a guilty pleasure? Maybe. I'm on the fence with this one, and only just.

Taboo Tattoo: The plot is ridiculous, but I like the characters and the premise enough to give it a chance. It's another one on the chopping block, though.

Macross Delta: Second cour isn't amazing by any means. I'm waiting for it to impress me by the need for its existence, and am not seeing much beyond a bit of fleshing out for the Windermere faction. Give me something, damn it.

Planetarian: Get ready to get kicked in the feels, because this show was made to do exactly that. And, per spoilers, I have every reason to believe it will. Watch this show. I think it will be worth the trouble.

Well, that's what I got. Did I miss anything of note? If so, speak up! Otherwise, happy viewing!

For my post-3I fic, go here.The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-PassPeople's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of BantorraI hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis EvangelionYes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

Rosenakahara wrote:^ You watching the 97 anime or reading the manga of berserk yet?

Not a fan of incomplete stories, so no. I'll wait 'til it's done and blow off everything I see in the interim.

For my post-3I fic, go here.The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-PassPeople's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of BantorraI hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis EvangelionYes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

Bagheera wrote:Planetarian: Get ready to get kicked in the feels, because this show was made to do exactly that. And, per spoilers, I have every reason to believe it will. Watch this show. I think it will be worth the trouble.

As this is only 5 short episodes, and I enjoy the other Key adaptations, maybe I'll give this a whirl.

Anyway, the second episode of 91 Days confirmed my choice to go with it; and the third episode of Orange maintained its excellence. I'm happy with my choices, and nothing else has attracted me from the descriptions I've read up to now.

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )Avatar: "It's my intention not to see you again" (details); Past avatars.Can't wait for 3.0+1.0? - try Afterwards... my post-Q Evangelion fanfic (discussion)

Bagheera wrote:Berserk 1-3: I somehow get the feeling this is not the best place to start with this franchise.

The problem is that the first few arcs have been adapted twice over, so clearly whoever's making the new show felt that they should skip those and get onto the next part. Unfortunately it seems they also felt like they couldn't serve a clean adaptation and had to give us an establishing moment, hence the clumsy use of the first chapter of the manga as the plot of the first episode of the 2016 anime. I'll probably stick with it but after watching episode 3 I keep getting the nagging feeling that I could be experiencing all this with more fluidity by just reading the manga.

The censorship of the new show is also pretty weird compared to the manga and the 90s anime. Copious gore, the rape-horse and Farnese mounting the Dragonslayer are all kept, but Farnese's nipples apparently didn't make it.

Japan has a bit of a . . . complicated relationship with parts of the human body.

Want to know why tentacle anime is so popular? Because there were censorship laws that made it so that you couldn't show a penis on TV. Nipples are usually excluded because people find them unattractive due to centuries of social conditioning, not because of censorship laws.

Historically, the naked body is not considered to be attractive in Japanese culture. The classic Heian era (11th century) novel The Tale of Genji illustrates how people wore layers and layers of clothes (women wore 12 layers), and had sex while (nearly) fully dressed and in the dark (see pages 30-32 of The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu: Translation by William J. Puette).

I’ll escape now from this world, from the world of Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean is nothing now! Another story must begin!Avatar: "There's a Starman, waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet me, but he thinks he'd blow my mind."Phew, I’m not tense anymore… now I’m just miserable.People say "be yourself" but that's bad advice, if we were all to "be ourselves" many of us would stop wearing clothes. -Chuckman

Shinoyami65 wrote:The problem is that the first few arcs have been adapted twice over, so clearly whoever's making the new show felt that they should skip those and get onto the next part. Unfortunately it seems they also felt like they couldn't serve a clean adaptation and had to give us an establishing moment, hence the clumsy use of the first chapter of the manga as the plot of the first episode of the 2016 anime. I'll probably stick with it but after watching episode 3 I keep getting the nagging feeling that I could be experiencing all this with more fluidity by just reading the manga.

The censorship of the new show is also pretty weird compared to the manga and the 90s anime. Copious gore, the rape-horse and Farnese mounting the Dragonslayer are all kept, but Farnese's nipples apparently didn't make it.

They also cut out Rape-horse's dick from that shot and replaced it with the lick instead, personally i would have preferred the former staying because it didnt actually do anything.And yeah all the anime made me do is read the manga again, it's a much better experience.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:Are there any anime worth recommending right now? Mind you, I can't stand any kind of harem like show where a boring male protagonist/male viewer stand-in has a horde of overly character designed women with squeaky voices throw themselves at him during the course of the show.

Not from the current season, but my favorite series in recent memory was One Punch Man. Funny, adult characters, no fan-service, not sexualized, great action, and a decent satire.

Awesomely Shitty-"That purace has more badassu maddafaakas zan supermax spaceland."-On EMF, as a thread becomes longer, the likelihood that fem-Kaworu will be mentioned increases exponentially.-the only English language novel actually being developed in parallel to its Japanese version involving a pan-human Soviet in a galactic struggle to survive and to export the communist utopia/revolution to all the down trodden alien class and race- one of the premise being that Khrushchev remains and has abandoned Lysenko stupidity

Zeta Gundam ep. 4: I personally found Emma's defection to be while predictable a little sloppy in indicating the precise moment she decided to leave the Titans so it comes off as an unwanted surprise which seems to be the norm in these Tomino-directed entries.

Rahxephon ep. 22: They keep dancing around the oh so obvious connection between the two leads Ayato and Haruka that it's a miracle the "secret" lasted this long. But the soundtrack is such a blessing!

I’ll escape now from this world, from the world of Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean is nothing now! Another story must begin!Avatar: "There's a Starman, waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet me, but he thinks he'd blow my mind."Phew, I’m not tense anymore… now I’m just miserable.People say "be yourself" but that's bad advice, if we were all to "be ourselves" many of us would stop wearing clothes. -Chuckman

I could’ve produced a montage GIF of all the male nudity in this show… but my access to the library’s internet is limited to one hour. Not nearly enough time.Poxy library occasionally flags this topic as pronographic and disables my access. I bet it's all the recent talk of Berserk...

Bagheera wrote:Orange: OMG this is so fucking amazing you should watch it YOU SHOULD WATCH IT RIGHT NOW--

Uwah? Did you just type something about Orange without using the word “solid” anywhere in your post? Weird. Anyway- I tried reading the comic on crunchy but wasn’t taken by it, three eps into the toon however it passed the Tines test and is shaping up to be a pretty soli- uh- decent shou for the jos.

Watched ReLife, enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to, or probably should have. Like Orange- I wasn’t sold on the comic, maybe it was the generic and soulless artstyle; not to say the art and animation of the toon isn’t much better.A man in his late twenties is given some magic-science pill to look like a teenager again and re-experience school life for one year, a “re-life” as it were. It’s an unusual viewing experience- vicariously experiencing a character’s second experience of school life... too much “experience” in that sentence…I happen to be at an age and situation similar to that of the main character, so maybe that explains why I felt hooked despite its obvious flaws.Nothing ground-breaking, but it made for pleasant enough viewing during exercises.

Rewatched the first couple of episodes of Flying Witch, spotting quite how front loaded/soon over and done with the school bits were. And the couple of cameos in the mandrake scene.

Also the first episode of Amanchu!, which came off the worse in the immediate shift of gears and scenery -- and a lot more school than the random chapters I'd previously seen on /a/ would have led me to expect. I was equally unprepared for quite how ditzy Pikari is, and that President Aria or close facsimile would be there.

I've been waiting since last week for the pink haired lady to stab "Yukihime". When the latter got shot, I was all "Oh, I guess it's not going to happen".

But nah, bulletproof shield (the hell was that when Sofi shot the knife from her hand?). Stabbing commenced.

"I'll now take credit for your work". What work? Reconnaissance? It was implied that your side knew all along where that fragment-thing was, why was visually confirming it so important?

Bah. Less annoying than the cosplay subplot at least.

Anyway, Yukihime will probably take up residence with the Demon now.

Shokugeki no Soma S2 Ep. 4

Wo, the Heel has f*cking landed. I admittedly wasn't expecting this, as the OP had me believing Soma was already juggling 3 other rivals. Turned out one of them will face another, and the third will probably have his showdown after the elections.

Now that Soma is risking his status as a a Chef, there's only one possible outcome here, so that takes a lot of the tension out of it.

BTW, anyone besides me got to thinking that the OP director must have worked on a Gundam series?

"It's all fun and games till one of you gets my foot up your ass." - FofR, TrivialBeing.net Webmaster

I have some free time before I have to get started on my summer final. So I binged Maria the Virgin Witch, after one of my favorite Non-Anime youtubers recommended it.

it's one of those shows that while technically not doing anything particularly new with set up or its characters does it so well that's I completely appreciate it. It's very much in the spirit of a Miyazaki production even though it very clearly is not given some of the adult themes it focuses on.

The plot is that during the hundred years war, a Witch named Maria defends a French Village from both French and British armies. Only to be cursed by heaven for using her powers in such a public display on the battlefield. Basically, she can't have sex. . . or else lose all her powers as a witch FOREVER.

It takes itself pretty seriously for a series with such a potentially disastrous set-up, and handles it tastefully (Maria's virginity and autonomy as a character are taken quite seriously). it discusses big themes such as the potential for abuse of Religious office, the clash of Christian faith with ancient pagan religions, and the backwards treatment of women and non-Christians in Medieval European society.

I really like Maria as a character, even if she is stubborn and refuses to change her ways. She's outspoken, and genuinely cares for people, even if they reject her time and time again out of fear of damnation. Maria's actions, though well intended don't always have the consequences she desires for the people.

The majority of the supporting cast is pretty solid too, I really like the voice actress who did the British Witch Vivian, she knocked all her lines out of the park.

And it handles sex and sexuality in the context of a Medieval society quite tastefully, despite the fanservice costumes the witches wear. . .

SPOILER: Show

Maria isn't treated any lesser by the narrative after Michael strips her of her power when she's raped (a scene that was done non-graphically, you hear her moaning and screaming but you don't see the act) and loses her powers as a result of it.

But I am upset that her rapist didn't get killed. Look I'm all for the Christian concept of forgiveness, but rape is a tough crime to forgive especially in the context of fiction.

He bragged about it to the boy she loved, and didn't show a bit of remorse for his actions.

It's even more disappointing considering we got to know the rapist as a character before he did the act! It was betrayal of the audiences expectations, but it didn't have as much payoff as I think it needed. He needed to pay for taking a girls virginity, and while he did some comeuppance it wasn't comeuppance enough for me.

Aside from the aforementioned scene, this anime's concept of Christian belief is. . . Schizophrenic to say the least. there are parts of the anime where it specifically talks about Jesus message of loving thy neighbor contrasting with the hypocrisy of the medieval church And are more or less played straight.

Then you've got things like Valkyrie and Pagan gods talking to the Archangel Michael.

yeah the Archangel Michael isn't portrayed in a flattering light here. less of a proud warrior of God's Kingdom and more as a creepy robotic marionette dishing out God's punishment with all the empathy of a serial killer.

I'm curios to see what a devout catholic would say about this series. . .

Last edited by Ray on Thu Jul 28, 2016 8:09 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I’ll escape now from this world, from the world of Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean is nothing now! Another story must begin!Avatar: "There's a Starman, waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet me, but he thinks he'd blow my mind."Phew, I’m not tense anymore… now I’m just miserable.People say "be yourself" but that's bad advice, if we were all to "be ourselves" many of us would stop wearing clothes. -Chuckman

D.Gray-Man: Hallow EP 1-4 - While it is nice seeing it animated, the manga is so much better. The art and the pacing works better in the manga. Granted, it is very nice to see DGM return after 8 years, so I'll watch it just out of hope it does well enough for later arcs to be animated too.

JoJo - You probably know what JoJo is at this point. So simply more awesomeness.

91 Days - Very interesting imo. Don't wanna review or state my opinion until the show is over. So far it's very good, though.